Biography & Musical Journey

Valentino Gikovski is one of Australia’s leading flamenco guitarists and is known for arranging and producing his own flamenco compositions.

Valentino was born on the 26th of March 1975 in Melbourne Australia to Macedonian parents you immigrated from Yugoslavia. Valentino showed a talent for music and the guitar at a very young age. He started playing the guitar at the age of 3 watching his father Stanche Gikovski who was a singer and guitarist play and rehearse every day.

As he entered his teenage years, Valentino started playing professionally with his father at various performances including public and private events and also grew an affinity to learn other instruments such as the keyboard, bass, and percussion. His first guitar teacher was his father, teaching him many styles of music and the importance of versatility on the guitar. He was also Valentino’s main influence for flamenco even though he wasn’t a flamenco guitarist, he had a passion for the genre and listened to flamenco music regularly.

Up until his journey to Spain, Valentino learnt flamenco guitar pretty much on his own as there was no formal flamenco schooling where he grew up. In lieu of this his father recommended he studied classical guitar to be a what he called a “Literate musician” learning to read and write music in a formal sense. He achieved this but Valentino’s heart was always in flamenco therefore decided to pursue his childhood dream of being a first class flamenco guitarist which he has achieved.

He married Anica Gikovska in 2003 and they have 2 Children named Zan and Emma.

Musical Journey

A Lifelong Background in Music

Valentino began playing guitar at a very young age and grew up in a musical family where music was an important part of everyday life.

By his teenage years, music had progressed well beyond a hobby. He began performing professionally at the age of 16 while continuing to develop as a guitarist and multi-instrumentalist.

Over the years, his musical experience expanded to include guitar, bass, keyboards, accordion and percussion, giving him a broad understanding of how individual instruments work together within an arrangement.

That interest in how music is constructed eventually led naturally into recording and production.

By the age of 20, Valentino had built a recording studio in his family's garage and had begun developing the recording, engineering and production skills that would become a significant part of his musical career.

Guitar, Performance & Musical Development

Valentino's guitar background includes formal classical guitar training as well as an extensive interest in flamenco guitar.

His pursuit of flamenco took him to Spain, where he further developed his understanding of the style, its techniques and its musical traditions.

At the same time, his broader musical career has never been limited to one genre.

His experience spans styles including Rock, Pop, Metal, Flamenco, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Balkan, Latin and other forms of contemporary and traditional music.

This broad musical background influences the way Valentino teaches guitar today. Rather than approaching every student with the same method, he focuses on developing musicianship alongside technique and helping students understand how the skills they learn can actually be applied to music.

Valentino commands the instrument with a rare intellectual severity, extracting astonishing dynamic range from every register.